In a phone interview Thursday afternoon, Gross said he wants to use the president’s slogan but tweaked: Make Congress Great Again.

“Because there’s too many divisions in the Republican (party),” he said. “We need to pull together and need to put statesmen back into politics and not get career politicians.”

He said he thinks his association with Trump is a positive thing in the district.

“I think the president is doing an outstanding job … we just need the Congress to start moving forward and be willing to move forward,” he said.

Gross said he is not an independently wealthy man and said he plans to run a “shoe-string budget” that relies on grassroots efforts to get him elected. He said Duncan has left “pretty good shoes to fill” in Washington and he hopes to model his constituent service off of how Duncan operates.

Gross represents Knox County on the GOP's State Executive Committee. He said he also served as a 2012 delegate for presidential candidate Mitt Romney.